You said -- "But when I see someone who is demonstrably different, I don't say, gesture, or do anything to draw attention to their differentness. Common courtesy, IMHO."
Well, I would say that's true for most handicaps. It's respectful to have that kind of attitude. However, the way some people handle it with handicaps, it can be embarassing for the handicapped person. It's like something doesn't exist -- even though it does.
But -- for the deaf -- it's different. This is something that puts them into a completely different culture. It produces different ways of even thinking about their *very existence*. They perceive their environment around them in completely different ways that the hearing person does. It's a *different world* for them -- than it is for you, a hearing person. That produces the *different culture* for them.
Deaf people do not think the way that you do. They do not perceive things the way you do. They do not react to things the way you do. They filter everything through different mechanisms than you do. They co-exist in this culture, but they are not of it.
You also said -- "But there is a P.C. quality to the nonnegotiable demand that deaf people are different and apart, and prefer it that way."
Perhaps it seems that way to you. However, this *difference* and the fact that they exist in a different culture -- predates anything having to do with "political correctness." It's not the same thing.
It's simply a recognition of things being different and thus -- we realize that we're dealing with a *different group* of people. They're still "people" of course -- but they are not going to think the same way you do or comprehend things in the same manner as you do.
You also ask -- "Have the deaf always been this airtight closed community?"
I would say yes, whenever they've had a chance to function together, as a group. Yes, they've always been "this airtight closed community".
If you're a hearing person, you're always "suspect" to them. There's a general distrust of hearing people. However, if you've ever grown up in a deaf family -- there is no distrust of you, even if you are hearing. It's an odd thing.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Your replies are thoughtful and interesting. What is your own connection with the deaf community?
Horse Pucky. They have same brains, and more importantly the same visual cortex. Hearing is a very secondary source of information about the world for most mammals, most especially for people. It's blind people, blind from birth especially, that have a completely different conception of the world. It's true that for communicating, and humans are also very social creatures, sound is and important medium, but as the deaf have so aptly demonstrated, it's also one that is relatively easily substituted for.
I'm curious about one thing though, when deaf people read, do they mentally see the signs corresponding to the words, or do they just "sight read" and go directly to the abstraction that the words stand for "i.e. do they "see" the sign for a chair, or some idealized chair in their minds eye? Most hearing people, reading English or other phonetic language, tend to "hear" the words, even if they are taught the sight reading method, and most people evolve to sight reading even if taught phonetically, at least for all but unfamiliar words.